THE HIDEOUT

In a plot device that is becoming familiar, a new stepparent is the reason that a child—here it's 12-year-old Andy, in San Francisco—ventures into the streets, where he discovers that the world is more wicked than anything he has faced at home. Having run away, Andy makes camp in the luxury suite of a nearby hotel, to which he has found a key. He periodically phones his real father, in London, hoping he'll send air fare. But Fred (of the hotel staff) cuts short Andy's plans, homing in on his faked kidnapping and making it all too real. Shortwave radio is the means for Andy's rescue; Paul, the "wicked" stepfather, is forgiven. Largely contrived, and, though Andy's uneasiness with his mother and Paul's sexuality is clearly compelling, any realistic exploration of his perfectly believable feelings is pushed aside to make room for the hollow, feel-good ending. (Fiction. 8-12)